


Mixed Bag: DA Drabble Collection

by meraki_saki



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: AU, Arranged Marriage AU, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Modern AU, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-08-11 04:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7875328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meraki_saki/pseuds/meraki_saki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Dragon Age drabbles. Multiple pairings. Mostly AUs</p>
<p>1; Sebastian x Hawke - modern AU<br/>2; Isabela x Hawke - mermaid AU<br/>3; Cullen x Inquisitor - high school AU<br/>4; Morrigan x Warden - arranged marriage AU<br/>5; Cullen x Inquisitor - modern AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Modern AU - Sebastian x Hawke

**Author's Note:**

> prompt; ‘Hey bastard this store is already closed oh wait you’re hot never mind please do come in’
> 
> summary; when Bethany is torn from her duties as a good sister and her own desires. because she really didn’t want to be the one closing the store that day

“Hawke, you’re _still_ here?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Hawke answered, perking herself up from the magazine she was reading and allowing a dramatic frown to appear on her lips. “I am almost offended, Bethany. As a model employee, I take this job and my responsibilities very seriously.“

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Model employee… funny hearing that from someone who was asleep for half of her shift.”

Hawke’s lips quickly turned into a smirk, and her gaze dropped back down, casually turning the page and not deigning her with further elaboration.

Bethany crossed her arms over her chest, almost gawking at the sight. After all, her elder sister hated this job, hated it even more when she had to stay until close. The moment the clock struck nine, Hawke rushed out the door without another word, leaving the poor sucker she was working with the sole task of closing the shop all by themselves. And oftentimes that sucker was herself.

Bethany quickly glanced down at her wrist, eyes widening in disbelief. It was precisely 9:07 pm. Hawke was still there.

“My apologies, Miss Hawke. I promise I will only be a moment longer.” Bethany spun around to stare at the source of the voice. She blinked, staring at the young man, who in turn was looking at her sister with a crooked smile. “Again thank the heavens for your kindness. I would have no idea what I would do if you didn’t let me in.”

“Don’t worry about it! Take your time!” She answered back, craning her head as he disappeared down the aisle. “Just thank the heavens for your fine ass. Damn.”

Bethany could hardly believe it. “Are you serious? Sebastian? One of our regulars?”

“Could you be any louder? He might hear you.” Hawke snapped her head, sighing in relief to see him dally down the aisle, completely oblivious. “But come on, sis, you have to admit. The guy is really hot.”

“I mean, I guess he’s handsome… Wait. Are you actually going to try something?”

Hawke’s expression became uncharacteristically solemn. “…Bethany, he’s really hot. If I have to work this godforsaken shift, I might as well try to get something good out of it.”

“But, why even try. You do know that he’s…”

She allowed the sentence to die at her tongue when a certain thought passed through her head. Hawke was trying because she so clearly _didn’t_ know. She never went to any of the chantry services with her, so it was obvious she wouldn’t realize the truth about their handsome customer.

She tapped her fingers against her elbow as she pondered the thought. Maybe she should tell her. She had the right to know.

But then again Bethany really, _really_ didn’t want to be the one to close the store that night.

“Alright then.“

Hawke blinked when she caught the keys. "Wait, really?”

“Yeah. Go ahead. You have my blessing. Just don’t cause too much of a mess.”

Hawke’s face lit up. “I cannot guarantee that, but thanks, sis! You’re the best!”

Bethany only smiled and made her way out the door, suppressing every desire to burst out into laughter.

_‘Oh Hawke won’t be so grateful when she finds out…’_

* * *

“I hate you.” Bethany glanced up when Hawke waltzed into the room, glaring daggers. “I love you, but I also really hate you right now.”

Bethany felt a grin tug at the corners of her lips, but she feigned ignorance. “What do you mean?”

“You know what exactly I’m talking about.” Hawke huffed and slumped down at the seat. “You could have at least warned me before I tried to shag a seminarian, who already made his vow of celibacy mind you. Some sister you are.”

“Well if you went to the chantry with me in the first place, you would have known already,” Bethany replied, allowing a trill of laughter to roll off her lips. “Hawke trying to tempt a man of faith and failing on epic proportions… I’m sure Varric would enjoy that.”

_“Don’t you even dare.”_


	2. Mermaid AU - Isabela x Hawke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt; i’m a fisherman and you’re a mermaid who got tangled in one of my nets au
> 
> pairing; Isabela x Hawke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Instead of a fisherman, I decided to go towards a different nautical route

If Marian Hawke had to decide what her greatest flaw was – which her brother, Carver, would happily say that it’d be one of numerous – it had to be that she was too nice and cared too goddamn much.

She often claimed that was a lie, that she really didn’t care about the denizens in the swarmy Kirkwallian sea or their wellbeing. But more often than not, she would find herself thrown into ridiculous situations just to save their idiotic lives.

Wrestling an octopus to save a mermaid from being crushed, rescuing her mabari dogfish from getting mauled by a barracuda, saving her stupid brother from a pack of angry sharks (he claimed he didn’t need her help… though it wasn’t like that dork could _actually_ handle 5 hungry sharks all by himself).

Carver told her that her altruism would get the better of her one day, that it’d backfire and she’d be stuck in a situation where she wouldn’t even be able to save herself.

When she found her tail stuck in a net after saving a school of fish, feeling it haul her straight out of the water, she figured that day had finally come.

_‘My luck,’_ she thought dismally as she sat in the cabin with nothing, but a blanket over her shoulders, glaring down at the wooden panels.

“So, you’re what’s causing a big fuss on my ship, huh?”

Hawke glanced up to see a woman - _the captain of the ship, she assumed_ \- waltz up to her. For a moment, she felt stunned. She carried herself with a grace she never thought a human could possess, reminding Hawke of a shark prowling the waters - fierce, confident, proud… withholding an underlying hint of danger.

After reminding herself of her current situation, Hawke snapped out of her daze and turned her gaze down to her drying fins.

“When they said they caught a mermaid, I didn’t believe them. Had one too many pints, I said. But now…” The captain whistled, eyes roaming from the very tips of her tail, following every scale, every curve, before finally settling on her face. “Well now I can say I’ve seen everything.”

“I know. Fantastic. An actual mermaid. Whoopee.” She wiggled in her place and wrapped the blanket tightly around herself, feeling her face warm underneath the woman’s gaze. “Now since all your dreams have come true, you can release me back into the ocean and allow me to go my merry way.”

“Oh, no. You think I’m just going to _release_ you?”

By the way her lips curved, Hawke’s heart dropped in her chest. She heard stories of what happened to merpeople when they were caught by humans. None of the stories turned out well. The lucky ones were sold into freak shows, dumped into dirty, cramped tubs, and ogled by folks like oddities. Others were mutilated or stuffed like trophies.

Hawke swallowed and steeled herself for the very worst.

“You… I would like you to join my crew.”

That was one thing she never expected to hear.

“What?”

“Yes, you heard me right! You’re going to join my crew,” the ship captain smiled even wider. “I’ve always liked having a variety of people with different skills on my ship, and a mermaid would be an incredible addition.”

“Me? Join your crew?” She scoffed. “What makes you think I would agree to something that ridiculous?”

She found herself holding her breath when the captain drew close to her, bright eyes holding hers, keeping her spellbound in place.

“Sweetheart, you are on my ship right now. What makes you think you have much of a choice in the matter?”

Hawke cursed under her breath. She was right. She hated the fact that she was right.

After a moment, she found enough strength to tear her gaze away, grumbling a curt, “Fine.”

“Excellent! I’ll be sure to get one of the boys to get a grand meal ready to celebrate! Unless…” Hawke froze when she slid a fraction closer, brows arching. “Unless you want to celebrate in another kind of way?”

Hawke could not believe what she was hearing. “Really? You think after capturing me and forcing me to join your crew that I’d actually feel inclined to sleep with you, captain?”

“You can call me Isabela instead,” she said, a smile still touching her lips. “And I’m not going to lie. I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to bang a mermaid…”

“Well you can keep wondering because it’s not going to happen.”


	3. High School Teacher AU - Cullen x Inquisitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: ‘Romeo and Juliet of the math and english dept. in school’ AU
> 
> pairing; Inquisitor x Cullen
> 
> summary: to her, there is poetry in math. he just thinks she’s trying way too hard

_There is a little something_   
_called the golden ratio_   
_and how it constantly divides life_ _  
into a number of  
_ _infinite possibilities,_ _  
into something that’s  
_ _beautiful and new._   
_And never have I ever wanted_   
_my life to be broken down_   _into  
several thousands of pieces_   
_until that great divide leaves_   
_you and I  
_ _as the only_   
_remainder.’_

And there was silence. Elanna felt her chest puff out with pride as she waited for him to respond. 

Cullen only stood there, leaning against his desk, blinking, seemingly processing what he had just heard.

Finally, he spoke. “Are you _still_ trying to incorporate math into poetry?”

That wasn’t the exact reaction she was hoping for. She visibly deflated and released a low whine. “Oh come on. That one was pretty good.”

“It is better than that other one, I suppose,” he admitted. “That foiling bit on that other poem was a bit of a stretch.”

“That foiling part was good, and you know it.” She shrugged her shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Could you just accept me for trying to be a little romantic? I even turned off my math sensibilities to take some creative license.”

“Or maybe you should just leave the poetry to those who actually studied it,” Cullen murmured, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer.

“I did take an English class, you know. In high school. Which was quite awhile ago, but still.” Elanna felt a chuckle vibrate through his chest as he as he held her tighter.

And she wanted nothing more for them to stay exactly like that, in that beautiful, golden moment with someone she truly cared for.

But as a math teacher, she did know one thing about the golden ratio. That it sometimes wants to keep dividing just to tear things apart.

“Elanna!”

Both their eyes widened, and they jumped apart, sighing in relief to see no one standing outside the classroom door.

“I-I’m sorry, I guess I…”

“Go, I understand. I’ll still see you later for dinner?”

Her face lit up and nodded her head vigorously before heading out of the room to meet the source of the voice.

“Elanna, there you are.” Dorian cried, rushing towards her. “You do know that our meeting is on the other side of the building.”

“Yeah, sorry, Dorian, I was just….“ 

“Please don’t explain any further. I like to pretend that you are not consorting with someone from that pretentious English department,” he said, linking arms with her and dragging her through the halls. “Honestly, must I teach you a lesson in discretion? I know you believe you two are star-crossed lovers, Pythagoras and Juliet, but if anyone in the math and sciences department find out, they’d be positively _fuming_.”

“Don’t you mean Romeo and Juliet?”

“If I saw that handsome, yet awkward man as a Romeo, perhaps. Nay, in this case you’re Pythagoras, and he’s Juliet.”


	4. Arranged Marriage AU - Morrigan x Warden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pairing; Warden x Morrigan – arranged marriage AU
> 
> summary: this arranged marriage may be harder on her than she originally anticipated

He reminded her kind of like a puppy dog. It may have some things to do with the artist's style, but she felt it captured his essence, of someone who was honest, loyal... yet so clearly weak and pliable.

And to her that was perfect.

She was aware of the arranged marriage for a long time, accepted it as a part of her duty without question. Their household was on a slow decline and marrying a noble Cousland son would just be the thing they needed to reinstate their status in society.

_'Men are weak,'_ her mother would tell her. _'With a smile and a bat of your eye, you'll have this boy eating out of the palm of your hands.'_

And she believed it for the longest time. Even when she was allowed to finally meet him face to face, she still had high expectations of meeting that spindly fool from the portraits

Who she saw instead was definitely nothing like the paintings."

"Lady Morrigan," the young man said. "A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

"Ser Cousland," she said, unable to take her eyes off of him.

She tried hardest to find it, that weakling she saw in the pictures. He still had the same eyes, those deeply honest eyes.

Yet everything else was radically different. She found herself taking in the sinew of muscle barely contained in his attire, the strong mature chisel in his features.

"If you don't mind me saying, you look like nothing like the portraits," he said, eyes wide, slowly grabbing her hand. "In fact, I feel like they don't even do your lovely visage justice."

And he placed his lips on the back of her hand, short contact, a mere graze.

And when her heart skipped a beat, a goddamned beat of all things, she realized that this arranged marriage may be harder on her than she originally anticipated.


	5. Modern AU - Cullen x Inquisitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pairing; Inquisitor x Cullen – modern AU
> 
> summary: he told everyone that he could find a girl when he was good and ready. to his amusement, that day happened to be today. too bad the circumstances were not exactly ideal.

There was a girl in his apartment.

And perhaps in normal circumstances, he would have been okay with that. At least everyone else would have been overjoyed by such news.

Everyone kept telling him that he needed to move on from his previous heartache and find a new girl. He wasn't ugly, they'd say. He could find someone if he tried.

Such words did sting his pride and heart _(after all, it'd be a lie if he still wasn't filled with some regret about not trying to win his crush's affection. It certainly didn't help when he saw her in love with someone else)_ , but in the end, he ignored them. He could find a girl when he was good in ready.

Which, to his amusement, would apparently be that day. He just wished the circumstances were a little different.

"What are you doing?"

The girl froze, pausing halfway in her attempt to climb through the window, and turned her head enough to face him

For those few moments they were silent, gazes locked onto each other, both unsure what to do.

A weak smile curled over her lips. "Oh.... so this _isn't_ Varric's apartment, is it?"

Cullen only shook his head, unable to speak a moment, finding his tongue still, his eyes transfixed on hers.

She had pretty eyes. It was a notable feature, considering how wide they were as she nervously awaited his response. It was a color he thought existed in stories, a color that writers would wax about in poetry. He was in no way an author like Varric, but he did think her eyes were the prettiest he had ever seen.

When he came to the full realization about the direction of his thoughts, he mentally slapped himself and said, "No, he's my neighbor."

"Oh goddammit. I miscalculated." She hopped off the window and closed it gingerly behind her. "It's difficult to navigate the fire escape when you're in a rush and live five floors above."

"Wait, five floors?" He already lived on the fifth floor of this thirteen-floor apartment complex. "Why in the world did you scale down five floors?"

He was also wondering why he had never seen her before if they lived in the same building all this time, but he never voiced that out loud.

"Just some troublesome people trying to hassle me. Details aren't important right now." HIs brow arched in question, but she only shrugged her shoulders. "To say the least, not a lot of people tend to like me. Not sure why considering my delightful personality."

He only stared, unsure how delightful any person could be if they're sneaking in through one's apartment window.

"Anyways, could you please just let me stay here for awhile? Just until things blow over, and it's clear for me to go back up?"

He thought for a moment, perhaps a moment longer than was necessary. He knew what he should honestly do. He should refuse and make her leave.

But there was just something about her he could not quite place. Looking at her, he just knew she was a good person at heart. In fact, looking at her stirred something in his chest he thought he would never feel again.

Perhaps that was what had caused his momentary lapse in judgment, his break with reality.

He just shrugged his shoulders. "Only for a little while."

"Oh thank you so much!"

He blinked, watching her walt inside as if she's been over his place many times before and plopped down onto his couch.

"Hey, to kill time you want to watch a movie or something? Oh, and maybe have some popcorn! You do have some, don't you?"

He only sighed to himself, looking up at his ceiling, wondering why this happened to him of all people.

Well at least she's cute.

 _'What in the world am I thinking...'_   He mentally slapped himself once more, forcing himself to stop thinking such silly things.

* * *

"You had a girl at your place, and you didn't even _try_ to bang her?"

"I don't know. Considering the circumstances, it didn't seem appropriate or ideal," Cullen answered, earning an almost exaggerated groan and look of clear disappointment.

"Did you get her name at least?" Varric asked, shaking his head and mentally deeming him a lost cause.

"Her name was Elanna," he said, speaking her name softly. He could not forget it, even if he tried.

Varric's eyes widened. "Elanna?"

"Yes.... and I was under the impression you knew her since she had the original intent of reaching your apartment."

He seemed pensive for a moment, pondering. "Oh, so _you_ were the guy, huh..."

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, nothing, Curley... Just remembered I had some business to take care of so I'll be seeing you."

"No, wait, what do you mean? You know her? Did she talk about me? Varric!"


End file.
